Yemen talks to focus on transition

UN ENVOY: CONSULTATIONS TO BE HELD ON STEPS TO BE TAKEN FOR ENDING WAR

Talks between Yemen’s warring parties next month will focus on a transitional governance deal and disarmament, the UN special envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, said in remarks published yesterday.

Griffiths is trying to negotiate an end to the threeyear conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people and pushed Yemen to the verge of starvation. On Friday, the Saudi-led coalition fighting Al Houthis in Yemen announced a probe into an air strike that allegedly killed at least 29 children on Thursday.

Consultations are due to begin in Geneva on September 6 on a framework for peace talks and confidencebuilding measures. “Primarily, we are trying to reach an agreement between the Yemeni government and (Al Houthis’) Ansar Allah on the issues essential to ending the war and on a national unity government in which everyone participates,” Griffiths told the Arabic Asharq Al Awsat newspaper.

“This will require a signed agreement that includes setting up a transitional political operation under a national unity government ... and putting in place security arrangements for the withdrawal of all armed groups in Yemen and disarming them.” He said the consultations would lead to direct negotiations.

Griffiths efforts have succeeded so far in averting a full assault by the military alliance on Al Houthi-held main port city of Hodeida in western Yemen, but battles and attacks have continued in the impoverished Arab state where the Al Houthis still occupy the capital Sana’a.

Previous UN-sponsored peace talks have failed to end the conflict. The last round of talks in 2016 ended with Hadi’s government walking out after Al Houthis rejected a UN proposal calling on the group to quit three main cities, including Sana’a, ahead of talks to form a government.

Griffiths said talks on a new government should also include representatives from the General People’s Congress, once headed by slain former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and the southern movement, a powerful force that has provided many of the coalition-backed fighters against Al Houthis.